Over a period of more than a century, the shaping of bicycle seats has provided a variety of designs to improve rider comfort, or prevent damage to sensitive portions of a cyclist's body or both. The avoidance of damage to sensitive body parts dealt with cut-outs or provision of suitable cavities which prevented contact between the bicycle seat and particularly the rider's genitalia. Minimization of contact relied essentially upon four approaches, including removal of pommel or nose extensions, cut-outs or cavities for genital accommodation, split seating arrangements, and hinged seat elements that pivoted with a rider's movement.
Split seating arrangements have been commonly used. U.S. Pat. No. 591,330 describes the use of two coiled springs mounted on a horizontal bar with suitable adjustment to vary separation between the springs. A cover, shaped like an inverted saucer, protects the rider from the surface of the springs. Spring separation provides buttock support adjusted to individual rider comfort. Other references dealing with split bicycle seats include U.S. Pat. Nos. 608,682; 694,875; 4,063,775; 4,387,925; 5,387,025 and 5,709,430. Bicycle seats of some of these references include pommel or nose extensions capable of causing injury to a rider subjected to forward displacement from the buttock support pads in the event of a collision or poor adjustment of the support pads. However, most of the references relate to pommel-free seats including buttock supports with variable support separation and angle adjustment for optimum comfort during riding.
Additional references, free from pommels or other types of seat extension, include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,773,705 and 4,850,643. In both cases, the support for the cyclist is a unitary seat with contours shaped to fit the buttocks of the rider. A sprung frame, beneath the seat, provides added comfort for the cyclist. With the relatively planar form of unitary, pommel-free bicycle seats, there is little to prevent a rider from slipping forward and falling from the front edge of the seat. If a cyclist is dislodged from the seat with sufficient frequency, the required act of re-seating will become a source of irritation.
The use of pommel free bicycle seats to prevent injury to cyclists' genitalia is only one design option. Another option involves removal or displacement of material from the bicycle seat while retaining the pommel or forward seat extension. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,422 modifies a traditional "arrow head" shaped bicycle saddle by incorporating a central area cut-out to provide a saddle opening around external genitalia. The area removed from the saddle lowers the likelihood of injury to the cyclist. U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,222 includes a depressed cavity strategically positioned in the upper surface of a traditional bicycle seat and utilized for the same purpose as the saddle opening previously discussed.
Hinged seat elements that pivot with a rider's movement provide additional comfort, especially during long, tiring journeys. U.S. Pat. No. 603,734 describes a durable bicycle seat with an improved larger surface area, compared to bicycle seats in use at that time. A hinged flap under each of the rider's thighs rose and fell following knee motion during rotation of the bicycle pedals. The flap lowered, with downward pressure on the pedal, then adopted a supporting position under the rising thigh on the return stroke of the pedal. Similar thigh-supporting elements exist in the design of bicycle seats described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,387,025 and 5,863,094. In the latter case, multiple hinges ensure more consistent contact between the saddle and the underside of the cyclist's thigh for comfort during extended operation. While desirable, the additional comfort of hinged bicycle seats relies upon fault-free operation of relatively complex mechanical structures.
In view of the above described deficiencies associated with the use of known designs for bicycle seats, the present invention has been developed to alleviate these drawbacks and provide further benefits to the user. These enhancements and benefits are described in greater detail hereinbelow with respect to several alternative embodiments of the present invention.